Awww, look at those cute kids, standing around a Christmas tree, ready for Father Christmas to make an appearance. They're the stars of today's TV movie, The Secret Garden. A movie that has absolutely nothing to do with Christmas. At all. Nope, there's not even a small hint of it. I could probably make a case for the movie relating to Halloween, though -- there's a black cat who prowls the moors and leaps at the camera with a vicious yowl... there's a mysterious, ghostly wail wafting through the corridors of the old manor in which our heroine resides... oh, and there's a hunchback, but that isn't really scary unless you're a bell who has thrown aside your mallet during a performance of Carol of The Bells and the hunchback happens to be the conductor.
Whoa, I think I just related the movie to Christmas. Go me!
Hallmark Hall of Fame's The Secret Garden is based on the novel by the same name, which was written by Frances Hodgson Burnett, who also brought us A Little Princess. This version, from 1987, is one of many film interpretations. I've seen four... five if you count this one's sequel.
There's one from 1949 starring Dean Stockwell, better known as Al From Quantum Leap.
There's a BBC version from 1975. Our teachers used to show us the condensed version of it in school. Colin looked like a girl.
And there was a feature film in 1993 starring Kate Maberly, who would go on to appear in The Langoliers alongside Dean Stockwell, better known as... wait, I said that already.
So about that Christmas picture up there...
Upon the release of the 1987 movie, they reissued the book with the Christmasey cover I showed you earlier. Apparently the movie aired around the Holidays. Hallmark does seem to always release a movie around that time of the year. And also year-round and also constantly. Hall of Fame? More like Superdome of Fame.
Each of the Secret Garden movies has its merits; they take certain things from the book, leave out others, and add their own elements. Maybe someday I'll compare them all, like I did with A Little Princess. Then again, maybe not.
So about this movie...
It begins with Mary, a spoiled -- and yet neglected -- British child living in India. Her parents contract plague and die horrible deaths, and Mary gets shipped off to Yorkshire to live with one Mr. Archibald Craven. (In this version, he's an old friend of her father's; in others, he's her uncle. Want to know why they didn't just stick with the "uncle" thing? You'll see...)
Misselthwaite Manor, where Mary goes to live, is a lonely old place surrounded by moors and gardens. Mary is given her own quarters, and is told by Mrs. Medlock, the housekeeper, that Mr. Craven does not wish to see her. Okay, fine. Be a jerk, then!, thinks Mary, who has an attitude the size of Mongolia and hates everybody anyway. But not for long. She learns to like -- or at least tolerate -- Martha, her maid, as well as the old gardener, Ben Weatherstaff. She soon meets Dickon, Martha's brother, a teenage boy who is "at one" with the world of nature -- he can talk to animals. They become friends.
But there are two things that are plaguing Mary's thoughts -- one, the ghostly "crying" that she hears at night. Martha swears it's just the wind whipping across the moors, but Mary doesn't buy it. Two, she has learned about a secret garden hidden amongst the other gardens around the manor. This garden is "locked" and has high walls. It is said that no one cares about it anymore. Mary feels a kinship with this garden because of her own feelings of neglect. She is determined to find the key and the door to this garden.
Before long, Mary has found the entrance to the garden and has stepped inside. It is winter, and the place seems dead. She shares her "secret" with Dickon, who inspects the secret garden and tells her that the flowers are still alive and should bloom in spring, but they might need a little help. The two friends pull weeds, clear away muck, and spend weeks trying to bring the garden back to life.
Meanwhile, Mary has discovered the source of the strange crying sounds in the manor -- they've been the product of a boy named Colin. No one had told Mary Colin existed, but she finds him one night, and they talk. Colin, who is Mary's age, is the son of Archibald Craven. Colin is bedridden and frail and believes that he, like his father, is developing a hump on his back.
Mary and Colin don't become friends right away. There are a few battles of wills and screaming matches. Colin, used to getting his own way, insists that Mary obey him; Mary, used to getting her way back in India, does not give in. But once they calm down, they begin to develop a friendship. We find out that Colin's father rarely stops by his room to see him; usually, he only comes at night when he thinks Colin is asleep. Mary, who was virtually ignored by her own parents, can definitely relate.
Eventually Colin is able to visit the secret garden, in a wheelchair. Colin, Mary and Dickon all work together to bring the garden to life. Spring is approaching. Colin decides he wants to learn to walk. His father has gone abroad, but when he returns, Colin wants to be able to surprise him. And he does; he learns as the world blossoms into spring.
Bookending this plot is a "ten years later" type of deal, where we see Mary and Colin as adults, coming back to the manor after serving in World War I. They meet in the garden. They've been corresponding for years, and now Colin has come back here to propose to Mary. She accepts. Cue the music!
And you see why they didn't make them cousins in this movie? Mmmhmm.
There are lots of cool people to look for. Derek Jacobi plays Archibald Craven. Allison Doody (Elsa from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade) plays his long-gone wife (in dream sequences). Adult Colin is played by none other than Colin Firth, so the movie has an eye candy thing going for it. Not to mention, Barret Oliver plays Dickon... I had such a crush on him in those days. Remember Neverending Story? And D.A.R.Y.L.? Whatever happened to that kid??
The Secret Garden is available on VHS and limited DVD. Look for it at your local library.
